UK Struggling with Legal Rights of Soldiers

Some odd case law is being made in the UK, as they come to grips with the status of soldiers and their exposure to human rights laws.

Britain's Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a ruling that soldiers are protected by human rights laws at all times, reversing a decision which the government had said could hamper military decision-making.

Lawyers for the Ministry of Defense argued that earlier court rulings risked obliging it to protect soldiers from risks caused by conflict, or face potentially costly lawsuits.

Britain has 9,500 troops serving in Afghanistan and a rising death toll there has prompted calls for a commitment to withdraw them as soon as possible.

Six of the nine judges who heard the case overturned two lower court judgments relating to the death of Jason Smith in Iraq while serving with the volunteer reserve Territorial Army in 2003, Britain's Press Association reported.

The court was asked to rule on whether a British soldier on military service in Iraq was subject to UK jurisdiction and covered by human rights laws at all times or only when on a British military base or hospital. It chose the latter.

Lawyers who represented Smith's mother called Wednesday's ruling astonishing and said it risked undermining the morale of serving soldiers.

By: Brant